Switzerland: Chocolate, Watches and Jihad

Swiss authorities are currently investigating 480 suspected jihadists in the country.

"Radical imams always preached in the An-Nur Mosque... Those responsible are fanatics. It is no coincidence that so many young people from Winterthur wanted to do jihad." — Saïda Keller-Messahli, president of Forum for a Progressive Islam.

Switzerland is the answer to those who claim that Islamic terrorism is reserved for those countries that have participated in operations against ISIS or other Muslim terror organizations. Switzerland has done neither, yet its flag figured among sixty other enemy flags shown in an ISIS propaganda video.

"Huge sums of money from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Turkey are flowing to Switzerland... There is a whole network of radically-oriented mosques in Switzerland. The Muslim World League is behind it.... The network is a hub for Salafists. The Swiss authorities make a big mistake of not looking into the mosques." — Saïda Keller-Messahli.

There are around 70 Turkish mosques financed directly from Turkey through the Diyanet Foundation in Switzerland.

The Swiss government appears to give Qatar, one of the primary propagators of Wahhabi Salafism in the world today, extremely special treatment.

In November 2016, Swiss police arrested the imam of the an'Nur mosque in Winterthur, in the canton of Zürich, for calling for the murder of Muslims who refuse to participate in communal prayer. The young imam, who had come from Ethiopia, had been in Switzerland for only a short time. The Zurich Federation of Islamic Organizations (Vioz) declared it was "shocked", and suspended the an'Nur mosque from the federation until further notice: "We are shocked that an imam in one of our houses of prayer called for violence."

There is little cause for "shock". Already in 2015, Winterthur made headlines in Switzerland as an emerging center for young Muslims with jihadi ambitions. Four people from Winterthur managed to travel to Syria to join ISIS and a fifth was stopped at the airport in Zürich.

In November 2015, Swiss journalist and Syria expert, Kurt Pelda said, "The IS has a cell in Winterthur in the vicinity of the An'Nur Mosque in Hegi, there is no longer any doubt." He also said that in addition to the five known cases, another man from Winterthur had travelled to Syria as well.

The former president of the Islamic Cultural Association of An'Nur, Atef Sahoun, denied all claims at the time:

"If we discover radical tendencies in one member, then the appropriate person will be immediately excluded. We send them away, no matter who it is".

Atef Sahoun was arrested for incitement in November 2016, along with the Ethiopian imam, but later released.

"Radical imams always preached in the An-Nur Mosque... Those responsible are fanatics. It is no coincidence that so many young people from Winterthur wanted to do jihad".

In November 2015, Swiss police carried out a raid on the homes of two imams at the biggest mosque in Switzerland, the Geneva Mosque, which was inaugurated in 1978 by the former king of Saudi Arabia. The mosque is run by a foundation, Fondation Culturelle Islamique de Genève, which appears to have close ties to Saudi Arabia. While French police refused to comment on the raids or allegations surrounding the imams, a Swiss paper reported, "...a group of around 20 young extremists had attended the mosque for several months, two of whom allegedly travelled to Syria".

Swiss authorities are currently investigating 480 suspected jihadists in the country. Switzerland is thus an excellent answer to those who still claim Islamic terrorism is reserved for those countries which have participated in operations against ISIS or other Muslim terror organizations. Switzerland has done neither, yet its flag figured among sixty other enemy flags shown in an ISIS propaganda video.

Who funds the approximately 250 mosques in Switzerland? The Swiss government does not know, at least officially, as it has no jurisdiction to collect data on the financing of Muslim associations and mosques except in exceptional cases where internal security is threatened.

Doris Fiala is a center-right parliamentarian, who has urged authorities to create transparency. She wants to list every association that benefits from foreign money in a commercial registry, its accounts supervised by an independent cantonal authority and auditor. In response to her requests, the cabinet told her:

"It is nonetheless common knowledge that governmental organizations and private individuals send donations from abroad. But the Federal Intelligence Service does not currently have any information on possible external funding of mosques that could affect the protection of the State."

According to Reinhard Schulze, professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Bern:

"There are undoubtedly structured contacts between the Muslim World League and certain Islamic organizations in Switzerland. Donations from the World League and other funds coming from Saudi Arabia are given to those mosques and organizations that are open to the Wahhabi tradition".

Money from Saudi Arabia reaches Switzerland in various ways, according to Schulze. One example is the European Organization of Islamic Centers (EOIC), founded in Geneva by an Algerian in 2015, which has as its single goal the financing of the infrastructure of Muslim institutions, and the training and employment of imams.

"Huge sums of money from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Turkey are flowing to Switzerland", Saïda Keller-Messahli, told the newspaper NZZ in November. According to Keller-Messahli, the an'Nur mosque is not a unique example of a "radical" Swiss mosque:

"There is a whole network of radically-oriented mosques in Switzerland. The Muslim World League is behind it, training young imams and sending them out into the world. These are true wandering preachers, who are not only active in Switzerland, but also in Austria, Germany, Norway and Denmark. The network is a hub for Salafists. The Swiss authorities make a big mistake of not looking into the mosques. The image of the pitiful backyard mosques is no longer true. Currently, new mosques are being built at the cost of several million francs, most recently in Volketswil, Netstal and Wil. The idea that these amounts come from members of the mosques is simply a lie - they come from the Muslim World League and its organizations, for example in Geneva, with the clear intention of spreading Salafist thought here".

Furthermore, there are around 70 Turkish mosques, which are financed directly from Turkey through the Diyanet Foundation in Switzerland. The most important ones are in Zurich, Lucerne, St. Gallen, Lugano, Biel, Freiburg and Neuchâtel.

In addition, the Swiss government appears to give Qatar, one of the primary propagators of Wahhabi Salafism in the world today, extremely special treatment. Qatar has invested billions of Swiss francs in Switzerland: Already in 2008, it invested 6 billion francs in Credit Suisse and the former emir's son is on the board of directors of the bank. It holds 8.42 percent of the shares of the commodity group Glencore Xstrata and 4.11 percent of the rice retailer Dufry. Qatar even has a bank of its own, the QNB Banque Privée Suisse, which operates in Geneva. Apart from these investments, Qatar has invested heavily in the Swiss hotel industry, where it is continuing to grow its influence. It is currently spending one billion Swiss francs on acquiring and renovating three luxury hotels and resorts in Switzerland in Lausanne, Berne and near Lucerne, known as the "Bürgenstock Selection" project. The largest of the three is a resort, high above Lake Lucerne, where three hotels, ten luxury villas and dozens of apartments are being built. In the words of Die Welt, "Qatar is building its own village" in Switzerland.

Most telling of all, perhaps, is a small occurrence, which took place at the end of December. Die Welt reported that the Swiss air force allowed the former Emir of Qatar, Hamad Bin Khalifa al-Thani, to land in the middle of the night at Zürich airport, despite the existing night flying ban. The 64-year-old Khalifa al-Thani had broken a leg on holiday in Morocco, and insisted on being flown to Switzerland immediately, not caring in the least that no one is allowed to land in Zürich between three and six o'clock in the morning. The Swiss Air Force nevertheless agreed to the landing, basing its decision on a "medical emergency". Just before six, two more airplanes – this time from Doha, the capital of Qatar - landed, also during the flight ban.

The Swiss government, evidently, does not mind the ruling family of Qatar treating Switzerland as an extension of Qatar – and that really sums up perfectly the ongoing Islamization of Switzerland.

Comment on this item

9 Reader Comments

Jack Thomas • Feb 2, 2017 at 19:14

I cannot understand why European governments are preventing the supporters of ISIS from traveling to Syria etc. Surely it would be sensible to be rid of them by cancelling their European passports and issuing a temporary travel document as they would do in the event of a lost passport?

It is to our benefit to let them go as there is a good chance that they will not return. We might also consider deporting their immediate family as being complicit.

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Juanita Skelton • Feb 2, 2017 at 13:45

What a shame! The loss of Swiss NEUTRALITY, even if it never truly existed except in the hearts and minds of a generation of Swiss people, Americans, and Europeans.

I remember writing a term paper in boarding school when I was in seventh grade. My history teacher, a Mrs. Matthews, reminded us to be as authentic as we could be. We were to write a travel story/journal. It was to depict all aspects of our travel:names of airports, hotels, routes, streets and avenues, alongside maps showing origination location and final destinations. It was to be a journal/ diary as well. Then, she warned us to be extra careful with the language barriers which could cause confusion.

Well, I fell down in that particular bracket because my family had a wonderful time traveling through Switzerland....staying everyday and night in the "Hotel de Ville"! For those of you more astute than I was at the time, you are now giggling, and rightfully so, because I had simply thought the "Hotel de Ville" was a nice Swiss sort of chain of European Howard Johnson's Motor Lodges!!!! They are jail's!!!!!

Why did I share this silly anecdotal story? Well, the truth is I chose Switzerland to "travel through" because it was a nation my father had stipulated was exceptionally special BECAUSE IT REMAINED NEUTRAL during WWII. My father being a soldier, would honor that. In my childish mind any place that remained free from conflict, was a place of heavenly beatitudes. I wanted to take my family on a safe journey!?!? Then, when my father took me to the Swiss Embassy to get "inside information"(travel brochures with PHOTOGRAPHS), I visualized the sugar-plum fairy of grades....an A+!!!!

Memories are sometimes all we have left in a world gone mad with confused leadership, selling their citizens lives away to Islamic powerbrokers who operate at dazzling heights of royalty!

Swiss watches are such masterpieces of design and performance! What a truly HIGH PRICE we will all pay some day when those Swiss watches will not even pay the cost to bury our comrades who may die defending us against the onslaught of wahabbi Salafism as it is caught breaching our neutrality wherever we have tried to preserve it.

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C.P. Henson • Feb 2, 2017 at 13:01

250 mosques - 460 jihadists - in formerly pristine, neutral Switzerland. The impression is of a cesspit overflowing and turning the entire garden into an ankle-deep area of muck. The lethargy of our guardians in government in addressing what they must know to be happening leaves ordinary citizens pretty much at the mercy of these savages from the 7th century. Fortunately, at least for those of us who don't get blown apart in the initial attacks, the natural enthusiasm of Islamic terrorists for spectacular murders will move the question of protection from them into more willing hands.

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Thomas Pratt • Feb 2, 2017 at 11:48

The Swiss Banks have a long & sordid history of accepting deposits from less than reputable governments.

It was just a little over 70 years ago that they accepted Nazi gold, stolen from the Jewish people and then spent 5 decades trying to cover it up and put a stop to anyone's legitimate claims to the money which was stolen.

They also stole directly from many Jewish people that had accounts in Switzerland and it took years to recover that money, that is if any was truly returned at all.

Now it seems the Swiss banks are accepting deposits from ISIS, another Facist anti-Jewish organization.

It is time to clip the wings of the Banks & government officials that allow this to happen in the first place and make them accountable for their ill gotten gains!

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Jeff Page • Feb 2, 2017 at 10:03

I'm fed up with hearing this sort of story. Governments know that hate preaching in Mosques is still going on and yet they seem reluctant to do anything. The Muslim propaganda agenda is working magnificently, they have been able to claim "Islamophobia" and other stupid reasons for people being radicalised. And governments have been so terrified of being looked upon as "racist, Islamophobic, or for singling out Muslims because of their faith"! Exactly what the Muslims wanted is being carried out and yet governments are far too stupid or cowardly to challenge the Muslims.

They want to ensure that their religion is number one in the world and everyone becomes Muslim and governments all across the world are falling over each other to aid them. Instead of questioning, they prefer to sacrifice the lives of Christians in order to keep the peace. What they fail to see is that there never will be peace as long as Islam exists! Most Mosques in the West are terrorist training centres. The Muslims claim they aren't and the dozy politicians believe them!

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Josephine Bacon • Feb 2, 2017 at 08:45

"Huge sums of money from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait and Turkey are flowing to Switzerland..." And not only into Switzerland. Wealthy individuals from these same countries regard it as their sacred duty to fund all types of extremist organizations throughout the world and promoters of terrorism in the West Bank and Gaza.

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Chadwick Davis • Feb 2, 2017 at 08:07

Tracing one of my relatives back to Switzerland, I feel sad, mad and disbelief. Don't the Swiss realize the long term damage being done to their great country? Don't they see the slow takeover of Europe by Muslim immigration and refugees? Many of which are young men in their twenties, ripe with anger and hate and the desire to spread Islam like their told?

Look forward to more mosques, more demands from Muslims, more rapes and deaths and eventually a war in Europe to once again rid Europe of Islam. As their numbers grow their so does their demand to make changes to your culture, laws, customs. Don't appease!

Do the right thing now, stop the refugees, stop Muslim immigration. Ask the 50 Muslim countries, many extremely wealthy why they can't take the refugees?

Do citizens of the free world not understand that Islamic foreign governments pay for mosques in other countries to spread Islam.
Islam wants the rest of us to become like them or we are Infidels, they are told by Muhammad that lies and deceit are okay if they are spreading Islam.

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Robert Davis • Feb 2, 2017 at 07:48

For Switzerland and France money is the only thing that counts. Ethics, morality not even security is a match to them. They will end up eating...money!

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Albert Reingewirtz • Feb 2, 2017 at 06:36

So why should Switzerland be any different than the rest of Europe? Europe is fast gone to Islam. Soon Shariah will rule the now Europe ruled by Islam.

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